Cultivating Excellence

It’s the early 1960s in Lima, Ohio, on a golden evening in the summertime. At the edge of the flax- and emerald-colored fields that stretch throughout northwest Ohio lies the bustling Superior Coach Corp. plant: one of the world’s largest manufacturers of school buses.

A fifth-grade boy has finished his dinner and jumped at the chance to follow his father, the plant’s manager, onto the factory floor during the second shift. There, workers load steel beams and sheet metal onto hissing machinery, weld parts, affix fresh rubber tires and install endless rivets onto 36 shiny, new, yellow buses per day.

Keith Wandell is 10 years old, and he can’t get enough.

By the time Wandell, BBA ’72, was earning his degree at Ohio University, he still spent summers at the plant—now working and following his father’s tradition of talking with and learning as much as he could from his fellow autoworkers. This practice would take him from the manufacturing floor in Lima to the C-suite at Harley-Davidson Inc., where he led one of the biggest turnarounds of the 2008 financial crisis during his tenure as CEO from 2009 to 2015.

“I think the thing that served me better than anything else was those experiences I had going through the plant with my dad, working in the plant,” Wandell says. That and, “I was in the right place at the right time a couple of times,” he says, evoking a trademark leadership quality that has carried him far: humility.

When Wandell joined Harley-Davidson in 2009, the company’s sales had plunged 40 percent in a short period. By the time Wandell left in 2015, sales had rebounded, and its share price had increased more than 200 percent.

Wandell emphasizes the core principles of leadership he believes were key to creating success: vision, curiosity, accountability, fairness and the aforementioned ability to put aside one’s ego and really listen.

“To me, leadership is about helping everybody around you get better and helping people achieve things that they don’t believe they can achieve,” Wandell says. “[This approach] drives financial performance, but that’s not the reason you do it. 

Do the right thing, and let the results take care of themselves.”

Last year, Wandell and his wife, Deborah, donated $2.5 million to their namesake initiative at Ohio University’s College of Business, The Keith and Deborah Wandell Leadership Development Program (formerly the Select Leaders Program). This significant gift is set to instill in today’s OHIO students the leadership practices Keith Wandell is renowned for.

“As I went through my career, the one thing that stood out to me was how important leadership is to any organization,” he says. “It made a lot of sense to make that investment.”

“The education factor, to us, is so important,” Deborah adds. “To be a leader, you need leadership education.” The Wandells’ remarkable generosity, alongside other donor contributions, has enabled the program to provide essential resources to help develop students’ leadership skills.

Jennifer Traxler, director of the Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership at Ohio University, describes 2022-23 as “a crescendo year” for the Wandell Leadership Fellows. “We’ve had a lot of opportunities for students to network with alumni,” Traxler says, noting trips to New York City, Denver and San Diego, and says her team is working to identify opportunities for students to network abroad. “We’re helping them become global leaders,” she says.

Students chosen for the Wandell Leadership Fellow program engage with a dynamic curriculum aimed at helping them discover their leadership identities. Fellows apply these valuable insights through visits with industry executives, networking trips and by engaging in community service.

Outgoing Wandell Fellows President Lauren Bailey, BBA ’23, credits the program for helping her develop her leadership practice. “Wandell Leadership Fellows has helped me learn about who I am as a leader and how to adjust my leadership styles to best fit the group around me,” she says.

Wandell says he wants the program to create exactly that kind of leverage for OHIO students.

“My hope is that they see the importance of leadership and that they stay committed without compromise,” Wandell says, acknowledging that in any leadership role, determination is required. While Harley-Davidson’s revenue jumped from $4.78 billion in 2009 to $6.23 billion by 2014, the company’s resurgence didn’t come without Wandell’s wherewithal for embracing change.

“It doesn’t mean saying yes to everything—sometimes you have to be really tough and make tough decisions,” he explains.

Wandell’s refining time at the Lima plant, where he eventually served as superintendent while earning his MBA at night, and his following turn as an executive at Johnson Controls Inc., helped build this resolve and created in him a steadfast dedication to the people he’s worked with and gotten to know.

“When you decide to take on the role of a leader, it becomes your primary obligation to protect [people] and their jobs and their future the best that you can,” he says. “It’s really about serving them.”

Make an Impact

If you’re inspired by the Wandells’ commitment to shaping the future of Bobcat business leaders and would like to support The Keith and Deborah Wandell Leadership Development Program, visit ohio.edu/wandell. Your gift will help provide transformative opportunities for the next generation of outstanding leaders.